wait for it
by betterthanbone
Summary: The new student body president is terrifying.
1. Chapter 1

The new student body president is terrifying.

That's as much as Jellal knows about his new school, and it's not particularly comforting information. He idles in a secluded corner of the school while waiting for class to start, leaning against the wall and glancing around the compound. The school's homely, for sure, with the endless student artwork covering the walls and way people seem to be able to turn to anyone in the vicinity and strike up comfortable conversation, but its certainly not well kept. Almost all the benches in the school are snapped in half, looking like they were caught in the crossfire of a fight between students. In fact, that's the reason why Jellal waits for class to start standing up and not sitting down: simply because there was no place to sit.

"Hey!" A voice says. "Cool tats, dude."

A pink-haired girl strolls in his direction with glinting eyes and a canny little smirk resting on her mouth. She's got pink stockings pulled all the way up to her knees and her hair done up in sky-high ponytails that seem to cascade down endlessly.

Her gaze rests on the red markings that run down the side of his face, over his eyelid, just as most people do when they first meet him. Jellal remembers Ultear, laughing and red-cheeked, pulling him to the tattoo shop in the dead of the night and pointing to a random design in a magazine.

"Bring it on," Jellal said, unsteady with alcohol, flinging himself into the seat and tilting his face up for the kiss of the needle.

Those were days when he relished the feeling of invincibility that felt woven into his bones, when he could afford to do anything he wanted in the world, laugh as loudly as he wanted, when his mind was hazy and languid and toppled with the gentlest shove by a slim, nail-painted finger.

Jellal shrugs. "Thanks."

That smirk on the girl's face persists and Jellal can't help but read signs of foreboding in that pink curve. There is something about her, bright-eyed and guileless, that gives off the impression of an artfully flowered rose, replete with its own arsenal of thorns.

"The name's Meredy," the girl says, her voice high and fluting, traveling like a leaf on a breeze. "You're new here, aren't you? I saw you skulking about here like a loner, which you are, of course. Why the long face? And shouldn't you be out there trying to socialize? It's your first day, you really shouldn't blow this by being a block of wood. And if you're scared, you don't have to be. The people here at this school are kind of nice, all you have to do is get past their, well… _eccentricities_."

The speech flows out of Meredy without pause, nor does she wait for him to answer the litany of questions that appear to have been rhetorical. She quirks her head to the side, waiting eagerly for his response, bird-like.

Jellal raises an eyebrow. "I didn't come here to make friends."

And it's true. This isn't another chance for him to lose himself in the quick of the moment; it's something along the taste of redemption, of finding a new start. The thought of Grimoire Heart still stings bitterly.

"Ah! That's gotta be a problem," she chirps. "Because I'm your friend now. You're my friend now, too. That's how friendship works, you socially-stunted party pooper."

Jellal bristles at the title. "I'm not socially stunted and I've had friends before."

"That's great then. So you don't need me to go through the basics with you. Smile, greet people, maintain eye contact, don't fling shit around, that kind of stuff? Brilliant."

Jellal wants to say something more, to object to this whole proposition, but ends up replying with a long-suffering sigh. His own will seems useless when pitted against Meredy's, and besides, the girl did seem to have good intentions aside from her ironclad adamancy.

"I like the sound of that." She flashes him a toothy grin. The strident sound of the bell reverberates through the entire compound, eliciting a flinch from the both of them. "Yeah, that darn bell's too loud. Anyway, class is starting. I'll meet you on the rooftop during lunch, alright?"

Just before they depart, Meredy catches his arm. "Oh, and if you do have to know something, don't break any rules. Your tattoo makes it seem like you have some rebellious streak. Do not act on it. The new student body president is absolutely terrifying."

Meredy shivers comedically, casting a haunted glance out of the window as if recalling a particularly bad incident.

"Anyway," she says, snapping back to her usual exuberant self. "See ya later, alligator! And don't forget the rooftop!"

With that, Meredy flounces off and disappears into the throng of students bustling about in the hallway.


	2. Chapter 2

The roof turns out to be filthy and moss-inhabited, with green wire fencing lined around the edges, the installation of which hints to the school's curious history of accidents. Everything about Fairy Tail, even its furniture, seems to cry happy accident and controlled chaos. Jellal pauses at angry, red marker scrawled on the wall: GRAY SUCKS!

Meredy isn't here yet, so Jellal strolls to the edge of the roof and peers out the wire fence work. The view from the roof overlooks most of the school compound. Skyscraping towers, sprawling tennis courts, lush greenery. Students bustle about underneath. Out of the corner of his periphery, Jellal catches a flash of scarlet –

The door bursts open. "Hey Jellal! I knew I'd find you here."

Framed against the door is Meredy, short and slight, carrying two drinks in each hand.

"You _asked_ me to meet you here."

With an impish smirk, she waves a hand airily and hands him one of the drinks. "Ah, semantics. Here."

"How are you liking this school so far?" she asks, after Jellal pops open the top and takes a sip, feeling the carbonation bubble on his tongue.

"Some parts are strange," Jellal admits. For one, the warmth everyone seemed to radiate that Jellal could feel as soon as he stepped into the hallway, but Jellal doesn't say that. "What happened to all the benches?"

Meredy laughs. "Natsu's always fighting with other people, challenging people to stuff he doesn't win most of the time. The benches just get in the way."

"Huh," Jellal says. Meredy lets out a laugh at Jellal's expression and leans back against the wall, letting the wind rustle stray strands of hair around her cheeks.

"Well, you're obviously a stranger," she teases. "I'll tell you about everyone in this school. Everyone that matters, that is."

In the short ten minutes that Meredy's rattling off in her lilting voice, Jellal learns the ensemble of characters in the school. First there's Natsu, breaker of benches, owner of a voracious appetite, and aficionado in coming up with stupid schemes that constantly land him in detention. Lucy's his voice of reason, albeit a futile one, because she always ends up getting entangled in his schemes anyway. Gray's a footballer who has a penchant for keeping his shirt off, even when he might not be in practice, and there's a lot of other names Jellal learns about: Juvia, Levy, Gajeel, Laxus, so many so that it becomes hard to keep track of.

"Didn't you say something about a student body president?"

Meredy nearly spits out her drink. "Geez, just talking about her gives me the creeps! I came to school late one time and she made me run rounds around the school."

"Seriously?"

"You won't even believe what she does to Natsu," Meredy says, shaking her head vigorously. "Natsu's always been a total rule breaker and mischief maker. It's like he physically can't stop himself from getting up to stuff, and one time he played a prank on her. She left the room with him and came back with Natsu shaking and near tears. He wouldn't tell anyone what happened."

Jellal swirls the remaining liquid around the can thoughtfully. "Yeah, she does sound monstrous."

"Not only that," says Meredy, fixing him with a serious gaze. Jellal raises an eyebrow, wondering if the whole mysterious and ominous aura surrounding the student body president is something more than a little joke played by Meredy. "She's incredible at everything. Basketball, boxing, jujitsu, her studies, you name it and she excels at it. It's like she's a robot or something. I think someone should check her for power plugholes because it's impossible for anyone to be like that. And it's not fair to us plebeians. I struggle with my shoelaces everyday and Erza comes round, executing a perfect slam dunk while revising for the upcoming test without breaking a sweat."

"Erza?"

"Yeah, Erza Scarlet." Meredy tilts her head back to reach the remnants of her drink swirling about at the bottom of the can. "Remember that name. Your probable Doomsday. Haha!"

Jellal rolls his eyes. "Don't worry about me, I'll lay as low as I'll possibly can. I'm not the trouble kind of guy."

Meredy squints at him, appraising. "Yeah, you're definitely not a Natsu, now that I think about it, though your tats give me the impression so. What happened in your old school?"

Images of Zeref come floating to mind. The party, circled around Zeref, cross-legged, listening to him as if what he said was gospel, what he said was truth. He and Ultear sat knee to knee, equally as caught up in whatever Zeref was feeding them, stumbling around like fools in the darkness with wool pulled tight over their eyes. Those were bad times, times he's tried so hard to forget over the course of the years.

"Nothing much," Jellal lies. It seems like Meredy's about to call him out on his shitty lie when maybe something shows up in his face and she pauses, her gaze switching from amused to concerned. She shuts her mouth abruptly, tilts her head way back against the wall, craning her head at such a steep angle that he knows she's chasing that last, stubborn drop of the drink into her mouth.

A beat of silence passes between them.

"I know what you must feel like," Meredy says, quietly.

Jellal stills, his heart pounding. For a split second, he thinks she knows about Zeref and what they did under him, but she continues.

"I left behind something dark too before I came to Fairy Tail. Both my parents died in a mysterious fire accident and I sorta spiraled. I came to this city afterwards to get a new start. I've had my fair share of battles too. I don't know you well enough, but I can say that Fairy Tail is different. It's strange. It's a community. It's… warm. Whatever danger's just around the corner, whatever problems you're trying to escape from, you're safe here. Stick around with us enough and I'm sure you'll understand what I mean."

It's a moment before Jellal can muster up a reply. "…Thanks. For saying that."

"Ah! That's enough of that." Meredy blows out a breath. "We meet tomorrow here again, right?"

Jellal's about to give her an offhanded reply when he catches her expression. Uncertain yet expectant, flinch-ready but hopeful.

It is then that he realizes that Meredy's question is not a simple query but an invitation: _can we be friends? Real friends? Can we meet up here again?_ Unsure and tentative. The first time Meredy approached him with the prospect of friendship, Jellal thought she was taking pity on the new student and trying to ease his transition into the school. An obligatory action and she would whisk away after that. But now it's evident that it's Meredy who wants this as well, who is searching for friendship and companionship, someone to ease the humdrum roll of the days with, and has chosen Jellal. Now she's exposed herself in this startling moment of vulnerability and it is Jellal who holds the decision in the palm of his hands.

She was bright and kind and caring. How could he say no?

"Yeah, sure."

A brilliant smile illuminates Meredy's face, which she quickly tamps down on. She turns away in quiet satisfaction and hurls her empty can across nearly half the length of the roof at a dustbin. She lets out an excited whoop when it clatters in noisily.

"You may address me as Master from now on."

Jellal schools his face into an unimpressed expression. "And all it took was for you to throw a can into the bin?"

Meredy looks affronted. "I'd like to see you try, hotshot."

Jellal swings his arm, and the can slices through the air in a perfect arc to the bin, evidently a better shot than Meredy's.

Afterwards, Meredy will vehemently deny his accomplishment, citing wind direction, a torn rotator cuff (a lie, seeing how feverishly she's shaking her fist at him), asthma problems, a bad hair day, unlucky horoscope reading, and he has to concede that it _might_ have been one of the given factors at work to halt her frustrated ramblings, but at the very least, he's found a friend.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything had been going perfectly. Too perfectly, now that Jellal thinks about it. The bus arrived at the bus stop just as he approached, he didn't miss his stop, and he landed in school right on time. Seven on the dot.

As he approaches his classroom, Jellal notices that it's a little more quiet than usual and the door is left slightly ajar, but he can hear voices — sniggering? he's not sure — coming from inside the classroom so he doesn't think much of it. Just as he crosses the entrance, he notices a white cord threading from the handle leading to some unforeseeable place, and it's a delayed reaction, so much so that he doesn't jump away in time to avoid the large pail of red paint crashing over his head.

Excited murmurs fill the classroom. There is one particular source of noise that sounds extremely excited, whooping and hooting and Jellal doesn't even know how to describe the noises the person emits. Only when Jellal swipes paint away from his face does he realise who it is. The second he locks eyes with a pink-haired boy who, according to Meredy, must be Natsu, his face falls and his mouth drops open.

"Oh, Natsu!" A girl's voice chides. She's blonde and shiny-eyed and points an accusatory finger at Natsu. "Look what you've done!"

"I'm sorry!" Natsu cries, mortified, face turning an impressive shade of puce. His hands come up to flail wildly in front of him, at a loss for what to do. "I meant to get Gray, not you! Oh, crap!"

Silky laughter carries over the commotion.

"You got the new kid, huh? What luck," says a dark-haired girl with a beer bottle perched in her hand. Her eyes are alight with quiet amusement. Jellal's quite sure alcohol's not allowed in the compound, not to mention how she wears her uniform several sizes smaller than she should.

Lucy covers her face with her palm, shaking her head disappointedly. Her large hoop earrings vibrate along with her movements. Something about the weary set of her shoulders tells Jellal that this isn't the first time that has happened, nor is it a rare occurrence. "I knew it. I told you — I _told_ you it wasn't going to work."

Natsu looks as if he's been shot. He goggles at the mess: red paint splattered all over the whiteness of Jellal's uniform, staining him head-to-toe and getting all over the floor. It looks like a murder scene, albeit one the culprit was supremely embarrassed about.

"I am so sorry, man!" Natsu cries. He tries to wipe up some of the mess with a thin piece of tissue provided by Lucy but only succeeds in spreading the paint further.

Jellal, who has been utterly silent the entire time, flicks some paint off his face. "I guess I'll go clean up."

Lucy elbows Natsu. "Go help him!"

Natsu makes to rush forward but spending more time around Natsu seems like a quick way to get into deeper trouble. So Jellal interrupts. "Oh, it's fine. I can do it myself."

Another weak stream of apology escapes Natsu's lips as Jellal treks out, covered in paint, looking a lot like he'd been savagely mauled by a big animal. Maybe a lion, or a bear. In any case, no one would suspect it was from a bucket of paint set in place by Natsu Dragneel.

As he walks out though, another student walks in lazily, apparently indifferent to the fact that he is late, and freezes at the entrance. There is a momentary pause, then: "What the hell, Natsu?"

Muffled cries float out of the classroom, something along the lines of, "GRAY, YOU STUPID BASTARD. SO YOU'VE FINALLY CHOSEN TO APPEAR."

As Jellal makes his way to the bathroom, he realises he must look crazy to anyone who walks by. A guy who is slightly lost, sopping with paint. Thankfully, the hallways are empty because classes have started. Just as he's about to turn a corner, though, a sharp voice halts him in his tracks.

"Stop right there," someone says. The voice is so commanding and so sharp that it makes Jellal grind to a halt.

Jellal turns to see a red-haired girl with immaculately pressed uniform approach him, a severe look to her eyes that immediately tells him he's in trouble. He sees her hair — bright red — and the golden collar pin that glints at him almost gloatingly from her collar. Suddenly Meredy's words play back in his head, deciding to do so at such an apt point in time. _Erza Scarlet. Your doomsday._

He dismissed Meredy's words as a joke then, but now, up close, he believes her, true to life.

Staring at her is a bit like staring into the sudden glare of floodlights.

She pushes her glasses up her nose, scrutinising his appearance from top to bottom. The heavy weight of her gaze makes Jellal want to squirm. It's piercing, unforgiving, like she can see right through him. Her chin is nocked and her back is ramrod-straight. An imperious aura hangs around her like a shroud. He can feel her gaze linger on the red pattern winding down the side of his face and he knows this will lead to nowhere good.

She taps the edge of her pencil along the lip of her notepad. "You do realise that you are late, right?"

The question is more of a statement than an actual question, declared so forthrightly, like she didn't expect to be challenged. She didn't seem like the type of person anyone would dare lie to.

Jellal doesn't realise he's forgotten to reply when she raises an eyebrow. It was a powerful eyebrow arch, the kind that probably sent off reverberations, the kind that probably fetched a good number on the Richter scale. He starts to stammer out a reply when she cuts him off.

"And you've left a… trail behind you," she adds. Both of them turn to look at the gory mess he left in his wake on his way here. Her pencil moves rapidly across her notepad, scrawling down an offence to charge Jellal with. Jellal mentally facepalms. "Were you hoping to find your way back home with it? Like a Hansel and Gretel thing? A little breadcrumb trail? You're the new kid, aren't you? Surely our school hasn't been so confusing."

He winces in embarrassment. "Yeah… I'm so sorry about that. And I wasn't late, there was just an accident in class."

She glances pointedly at his state. "An accident."

"Yeah…"

"It's Natsu, isn't it?" Erza says, shaking her head and sighing. Again, the sense that everyone is long-suffering when dealing with Natsu's antics. Jellal realises a lot of people do that when they talk about him. He shrugs helplessly. "Honestly, he needs to start acting his age. I'll have to talk to him later."

Jellal agrees peacefully, hoping to sidle out of this encounter as quickly as he can. He knows his face tattoo doesn't exactly portray him in the right light. From what Meredy's told him to literally everyone's reaction to the student body president, the hope that he doesn't become the subject of her anger becomes more of a fervent desire at this point.

"Well, I was going to write you up for latecoming, but I'll make an exception for you." She tears off the top page of her notepad and crumples it up. "The toilets are there, and you can try to find an extra set of uniform from the lost and found," she says, very matter-of-fact. "As for the paint trail, I'll need you to mop it up. There's a bucket and mop in the toilet that you can use. Hurry back to class once you're done."

Jellal is quite unsure what to do. Hesitantly, he ducks his head in a quick thanks and to his surprise, Erza's mouth twists sideways in a wry smile.

"Alright then, see you later," she says, turns away, and stalks off, probably to continue on her patrol for problematic students. And that's that. He blinks several times in surprise, watching her retreating figure, the realisation just setting into him. He's escaped, unscathed.

Then he wonders why she didn't say anything about his tattoo.

Jellal changes into an ill-fitting uniform shoved at the back of the lost and found cabinet and mops up the rest of his trail, waving off the profuse apologies from Natsu. Throughout the rest of his day, he thinks about the the curve, the angle, the hook of her strange smile.


End file.
